The world’s first 3D sensor for mobile devices.

The Structure Sensor gives mobile devices the ability to capture and understand the world in three dimensions.

The Structure Sensor is available in your choice of two anodized aluminum colors: Ice Blue and Silver.

Early reactions.

It’s like giving some sort of a superpower to average-joe devices. Daniel Suarez, Author of Daemon & Freedom

New senses are going to make possible new applications. Tim O’Reilly, Founder & CEO of O’Reilly Media

We can’t wait to play with one of these around the Makerbot office. Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot

For me the challenge has been in creating 3D objects. This completely obliterates that challenge. Josh Levine, VP of Engineering at Shapeways.com

I really like how this device was designed from the beginning to be open and hackable because we don’t know which way it’s going to go.

Dr. Gary Bradski, President & CEO of OpenCV

A very important aspect of this device is that you don’t need a Ph.D. in computer vision to develop an application. Dr. Gerard Medioni, Professor of Computer Vision at USC

The Structure Sensor has been designed from the ground up to be mobile. They put a lot of thought into making the Structure Sensor work perfectly with the iPad and other mobile devices. The goal was to make a device that enabled incredible 3D sensing applications, was easy to use, had great battery life, was compact, and looked like beautiful, precision hardware.

Range

The Structure Sensor has a mobile-optimized range that begins at 40 centimeters and stretches to over 3.5 meters. This means it can easily capture anything from a teddy bear to an entire room.

The Structure Sensor chassis is machined out of a single piece of high-grade aluminum that serves as both a beautiful exterior and as a thermal core that keeps the precision optics inside at an optimal temperature. It’s also anodized for a high-end finish.

Unlike the IR structured light projector, the IR LEDs emit a uniform light that allows you to capture the world in infrared.

Some materials reflect infrared light in unexpected ways. Look at the brown chair!

Battery-powered

Its power supply that provides up to 4 hours of active use, and 1000+ hours of standby.

You’ll have full control over the IR LEDs from the SDK. Maybe you want to have two Structure Sensors invisibly signal each other. Or perhaps you want to create an augmented reality haunted house app where infrared ghosts scare the beejezus out of people as they walk around in pitch darkness. It’s up to you!

What about your iPad?

The Structure Sensor was designed to work with the Apple Lightning connector.

While not officially supported, the Structure Sensor can stream data to any iOS device that uses the Lightning connector – such as iPad mini, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, etc. Any of these devices can be used to develop applications for the Structure Sensor.

Included demo applications.

They claim that their team has been hard at work creating fun, functional demo applications for iOS that will let you experience the Structure Sensor’s capabilities right out of the box.

1. Object Scanner: Capture models of objects and export them to CAD software or for 3D printing. You can also upload models directly to Shapeways.com for 3D printing.

2. Room Capture: Easily capture a 3D model of a room by simply spinning around with your Structure Sensor and iPad. Then, tap any two points to retrieve distances.

3. Fetch: A virtual pet to play fetch with in the physical world around you.

4. Ball Physics: An augmented reality demo where virtual balls interact with the dense geometry of the world.

Here we have a demo of an augmented reality pet playing fetch – note how virtual elements are occluded by real world elements!

In this augmented reality + physics demo, notice how the balls bounce off each other AND the geometry of the bench.

All of these demos are built on top of the tracking and mapping features in the SDK. If you’re a developer, you’ll get access to the source code for these demos so you can start hacking right away.

But these demos are really just the beginning. As backers, you’ll get to play with and give us feedback on a steady stream of improvements to our core algorithms, new SDK features, and new demo applications.

Develop with depth.

They reported that they aren’t the only ones who have thought about developing mobile apps using a 3D sensor as inspired by seeing the innovative apps and hacks the community has done using other 3D sensors.

iOS Developers

Tap into a 3D sensor on an iOS device for the first time ever. With the Structure SDK, just write your app in Xcode and hit deploy. You can even launch your app on the App Store to quickly reach a wide audience for your app.

Depth image from Structure registered with the RGB image from the iPad.

Hackers & Hobbyists

The Structure Sensor has hackability in its DNA. Four screw holes on the bottom let you mount to almost anything – and we’ll provide open CAD models for creating custom brackets. With the USB Hacker Cable, you can connect to almost any platform that supports USB.

They’ll also provide open source drivers for multiple platforms including Windows, Android, OS X, and Linux.

How do I connect a Structure Sensor to an Android device?

To connect to an Android device, all you need is the applicable USB OTG adapter for your specific device (for example, many Android devices could use a USB OTG to Micro USB adapter). We will also provide an open 3D CAD model for a starter bracket that you can adapt to work with your device and then 3D print (CAD skills required).